Cookbooks

Taste of Maui

While Honolulu foodies may know that Kapiolani Community College has a flourishing culinary arts program on Oahu, they may not know that Maui Community College has run the Maui Culinary Academy since 1972, with chef instructors now teaching out of a new $17-million training facility. Get to know this program better through this cookbook, featuring more than 130 recipes provided by the chefs and partners of the academy. Bacon-wrapped ahi with apple gastrique, anyone? Filled with tips and information on buying produce locally. Taste of Maui, Mutual Publishing, Honolulu, $18.95.

Photo: courtesy OF Watermark Publishing

The Island Bistro Cookbook

We know HONOLULU readers love chef Chai Chaowasaree, his restaurants, Chai’s Island Bistro and Singha Thai Cuisine, having been voted into our Hale Aina Awards numerous times over the years. Now you can learn more about the man and his work through this collection of more than 90 recipes for dishes from his restaurants. Personal notes from Chai explain how his food came to be so distinctive—for his popular crab-cake appetizer, for example, he explains why he added pork to the mix: “This recipe is from my parents’ restaurant in Bangkok. In most U.S. restaurants, crab cakes are fairly similar because they use only crab. I’m part-Chinese, and Chinese use a lot of ground pork. It adds extra depth and richness to the crab cake. I added the tomato-mango salsa to make it more suitable for local palates.” Published by Watermark Publishing, a sister company to HONOLULU Magazine, $32.50.